Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Cinismo oculto

"Protagoras, famous for his claim that man is the measure of all things, is widely regarded as the world's first relativist and anti-foundational thinker. We learn from Plato that Protagoras also greatly admired the virtue of courage, as have later anti-foundational thinkers like Nietzsche and Heidegger. The connection between anti-foundationalism and admiration for courage seems obvious at first: to know that we cannot know the truth is a hard truth to bear and therefore requires courage or fortitude in the knower if he is to accept this truth, and if he is still to have the courage of his convictions, no matter how unfounded. Yet Plato's examination of Protagoras and his thought suggests another and unexpected relationship between Protagoras' anti-foundationalism and his admiration for courage. Plato suggests that Protagoras does not, in fact, respect courage because he is an anti-foundationalist, but rather is an anti-foundationalist because he so deeply admires the virtue of courage. Protagoras longs for a world in which great courage is both possible and necessary. The belief that we cannot know the truth, and that all of our decisions therefore involve considerable risk, makes for such a world. Therefore Protagoras subscribes to this belief and is an anti-foundationalist. His anti-foundationalism is born more of moral hope than of a clear-sighted assessment of reality, or so Platosuggests. In my paper, I explore this intriguing Platonic assesment of Protagorean relativism and suggest that it may also apply to later anti-foundational thinkers, such as Nietzsche and Heidegger."